St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-29
MRS. RAENf;Y SET FREE.
A Wife is Not a Slave..Another Di.
vOrce Granted and One Applied

For.
The last scene in the somewhat noted di-
vorce ca Sc of Mrs. Minnie c. Rainey vs. DR..
Thomas q. Rainey was enacted yesterday
morning when Judge Rea filed in the district
court a decision granting Mrs Rainey CON-
plete divorce, and giving the infant daughter
Louise to the father, who shall at all times
allow the mother to visit it. The decision
also awards Mrs Rainey $4,000 alimony out
of the estate of DR.. Rainey. The memo
randu1n of the decision is quite lengthy, and
details at some length what constitutes cruel
and inhuman treatment. The judge says:
1.-The defendant seems to have mistaken
view of the marital rights of himself and
wife to have failed to appreciate in its true
light their relationship. By becoming his
wife Mrs. Ralney did not cease to be u per-
son, did not lose her individuality,
morally or socially: she retained
her natural rights, her moral and
natural sensibilities, her capability to
enjoy pleasure and to suffer pain, and her
natural right to secure in an innocent way her
personal happiness. All these rights retained
by her he WAS bound to respect, but he does
not seem to have even recognized their ex-
iStence. 1t is not as a slave, as a mere
creature of husbands WILL that woman
can be true wife. Dr. Rainey, however,
apparently acted upon that theory. Never
thelesS, unqualifedly condemning Dr.
Rainey's general course of conduct toward
his wife, there is not In it sufficient to justify
granting her divorce, and We're it not for
the eliminating act of DR.. Rainey in taking
away from Mrs. Rainey their infant child,
this action would have to fail. / can con-
ceive of no act more cruel. 1t would be
mOckery to say that blow upon the person,
struck in anger, constitutes cruelty under
the law, and that blow such as this was,
struck in elaboration at the heart and sensi-
tive nature of young mother, is not. l can
not say tn lat depriving mother of the pres
ence and knowledge OF the child she has given
birth to while her body is still unhealed from
the effort that gave it existence is not cruelty
and inhuman treatment. 1 think it the very
refinement of cruelty. [ do not think Mrs
Rainey can properly discharge her duties as
wife to Dr. Rainey or that she should be re-
quired to do so.
THE OLD STORY.
Luella Brown Banks filed papers in the dis
trict court yesterday morning beginning di-
vorce proceedings against Willis Hill Banks
whom she married at Lowell, Mass. Nav 81
1874. In her complaint she charges deser-
ton, bigamy and adultery. Mrs. Banks has
one child, a boy IL years of age, whom she
wants. After their marriage Mr.. and Mrs
Banks removed to Keene, n. H., where they
resided in perfect happiness for short time
Then Mr.. Banks began to manifest q wander
ing disposition and absented himself from
home for weeks at a time. After living at
keene nearly three years the family went to
the home of Mr.. Banks grandmother at
Thornton's Ferry. Banks remained there
two nights and then departed, leaving his
wife behind. The complaint alleges that
Oct. 20, 1884, Mr.. Banks was united in mar
riage with a Miss Mary Randall in this city
despite the TACT that he was already married
He lived with the Randall woman about
year, he deserted her and went to Chicago
where he married u Mrs. Jessie Seymour.
KATIE GETS HER DIVORCE.
Judge Rea filed decision in the divorce
case OF Katie Collins VS.. John w. Collins yes
terday, granting divorce. This case was
particularly aggravating one. Mr.. and Mrs.
Collins were married in this city Dec 25, 1882.
when Mrs. Collins was about II years Of age.
About two weeks after the marriage he COM
menced a course of cruel treatment toward
his wife, and in many ways made her life a
burden. Time and time again he ordered her
10 prostitute herself and give him the money
she might obtain for so doing. On her re-
fuslng to do this he would call her vie names
and strike her, $500